


Please Stay

by statictremors



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Maybe a bit of a happy ending, Seriously Plenty of Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-11-19 00:26:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11301957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/statictremors/pseuds/statictremors
Summary: Set during an imaginary scenario in which Phil is saved during S5, but is left in a coma.





	1. Chapter 1

The sound of the machines felt like they were being played through speakers.  They were all that she could hear.  Every little piece of machinery doing its part to make sure the man lying on the bed in front of her didn’t die.  She had thought them silly at first; he would be awake within the hour.  But hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks.  Now a month had passed and still no sign of improvement.

“May?”  She heard a soft voice call her name, and turned to find the source.  Daisy.  Her eyes were red again, something that seemed to be common amongst the team.  Not May though.  She had to be strong.  She had to comfort the others.  She wasn’t allowed to cry.

“May, there’s nothing you can do.”  Daisy said quietly, and May had to wonder if she had practiced this at all.  They had all tried to get her to leave.  They were worried for her, she could tell.  But none of their efforts had worked.  Fitzsimmons explaining his condition over and over again didn’t work.  Mack trying to assure her that Phil wouldn’t want her to be like this didn’t work.  And now Daisy reminding her she couldn’t do much?  That wouldn’t work either.

“Go home, Daisy.” She said, and the girl could apparently tell there was no point to arguing, because she was gone after a soft sigh.  So now it was just her and Phil again.  The nights always ended that way.  She was the last to leave, if she ever did leave.

“It’s been a month, Phil.” She said after a few more minutes of silence. “It’s been a month since we saved you.  Since we got you back…so why does it still feel like you’re gone?”

They had searched forever for him.  It had required pulling every string each of them had, and calling favours that weren’t exactly easy to get.  But they had done it.  They had found him, but he wasn’t ok.  The people that had taken him, and they still didn’t know exactly who that was, had done things to him.  Things that Jemma had only just begun to fully comprehend.  And so, they hooked him up to machines, hoping that it worked and soon he’d be smiling at them all.  And then she and Phil could have finally shared that bottle of Haig.  But alas, nothing.

“Jemma thinks she might not be too far away from working out what it is that happened to you.” She told him, the ghost of a smile on her face as she thought of the genius that Jemma was.  If she figured it out, May would never stop owing her favours. “I suppose if anyone would have figured it out, it’d be her.  I can tell that she’s exhausted.  With all the work.  And all the crying too.  But she’s like me.  And she’s like you.  And she’s like the rest of the team.  When we’re set on something, we’re too stubborn to let any of it stop us.”  She passed a glance to the machines as she spoke.  Nothing new.   What a surprise.

“Others seem to think you’re a lost cause.”  She said with a soft laugh. “But they don’t know you like I do.  You’re Phil Coulson.  You came back after being killed by a God, no way in hell you’re going out like this.  You’re a fighter, just like the rest of the team.”  At this point, she didn’t know who she was trying to reassure of that; him or herself.

“How long have we known each other now, Phil?”  May asked quietly.  “Gotta be at least twenty years.  You’re my oldest friend.”  And it was true.  “Bahrain, Lash, The Framework….you’ve been there through all of it.  One of the very few constants I’ve had.  And damnit, Phil; it can’t just be me.”

It felt odd for her to voice that fear.  To say out loud what she had been thinking since the day he had disappeared.  No, that was a lie.  Truth be told, she wasn’t sure when she started feeling that way.  But it got worse every time he narrowly avoided death, and every time he did the impossible.

Was this the end?  Was she about to lose one of the closest people she had ever had?  Who would she have then?  She knew the team cared; there was no doubt about it.  But no one understood her like he did.  No one could have a full conversation with her without even uttering a single word. 

“I need you, ok?”  She whispered, and she could feel the first tear fall. “We have been through hell and back for so long.  We’ve lost so many friends along the way, but it’s still always been the two of us.  And it can’t be just me left.  It just can’t.”  The tears began to fall more, as Melinda May finally allowed herself to let go.  To let the walls break.  To be afraid.

“I love you.”  She said in a voice so broken, and so quiet. “I love you.  I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.”  She repeated it again and again.  She didn’t know why.  Perhaps she thought that if she said it enough times it would force him awake.  Perhaps she didn’t quite believe she had said it and so had to reassure herself by saying it again.  She just didn’t know.  But either way, she continued to say it, and the tears began to flow more and more.

“Please.”  She asked him. “Don’t leave me alone.  Come back to the world, come back to the team, come back to me.  I am begging you to not leave.  Because you can’t.  You can’t just die, not after everything we’ve been up against.”

She sobbed again, as the pain ripped through her.  When the tears finally subsided, all that she could muster were two short, simple words.

“Please stay.”

She squeezed his hand.  And she could have sworn that she felt it.

He squeezed her own hand back.


	2. Awake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I had intended this to just be a one-shot (I just wrote it for a friend who convinced me to post it here) but the attention this got made me quite happy and made me think of a way to continue this. So, without further ado, let’s wrap this up!

Three days. Phil Coulson had been awake and moving around for three days now. And yet, it felt like nothing had gone back to normal. He received looks wherever he went. He could tell people were wondering what exactly he went through. But they weren’t the only ones, for he wanted to know too. As he had told May, as he had told Daisy, as he had told Hill, and as he had told Fury: He didn’t remember a single thing about what had happened. His last memory prior to it all was sitting in a diner with the rest of the team. And then he remembered waking up surrounded by that same team. 

It had been hard to readjust to it all again. Not knowing, just wondering. It killed him on the inside. So many questions, and barely any answers. They didn’t even know where to begin. And yet, despite all this, he was experiencing something much worse. Something brand new to him (because really, once you’d had one near death experience, the others almost floated by in comparison.)

Melinda May was avoiding him. It wasn’t obvious to anyone that wasn’t him. But he could see it clear as day. Whenever he managed to speak with her, he was lucky if her answers had more than four words to them. She seemed to just be leaving wherever he entered. But the key that really made her intentions to avoid him stand out?

He hadn’t seen her eyes since he woke up. They were the first things he saw upon coming out of the coma, and yet he couldn’t find them again. Whenever he tried, she suddenly became interested in the files she was holding, or her phone, or the table, or the ceiling. Anywhere but his eyes, she looked. At first, he just wondered if perhaps it had been the scare of it all. Well, that’s what he had told himself. But he already knew what the reason was. So why was he so afraid to admit it to himself?

As he passed one of the many rooms in the base, he saw her. She was alone, just looking over some files for whatever mission they had this week (he was still benched, despite his insistence that he was in fact ok.)

And so, he did what needed to be done. He entered, and before she could even fully take in who had just joined her, he had closed and locked the door. “You’ve been avoiding me.” He said firmly, sitting across from her.

If she was caught off guard, she didn’t show it. Not that he expected any less, given that he was talking to Melinda May. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Phil. Perhaps it’s just bad timi-“

“It’s not bad timing.” He said, cutting her off. “You leave whatever room I enter. You barely talk to me, and when you do, I’m lucky to get a response that takes you more than five seconds to say. And you can’t even look me in the eye. While I’ve been speaking right now, you’ve looked at the door, at the windows, at the ceiling, and even at my shoes.”

She went to speak again, but he held up her hand. “Let me finish. At first I told myself what you just tried to say. That the timing was off. That I just had bad luck. Then I realised the real reason. Or…I was able to admit the real reason to myself.” He looked directly at her, and finally, their eyes found each other. “You feel like you can’t go back from it. That we’ve crossed a line, and it can’t go back to the way things were.”

She stood up, and it was clear there was an emotion in her eyes that he didn’t see often. Something like fear. “You’re imagining things.” She said firmly, and went to leave. It was when he heard the door open that he finally found the courage to say it.

“I lied.” He said quietly. Though clearly it wasn’t that quiet, because the door closed, and he knew she hadn’t left. “I told you I didn’t remember anything between the diner, and waking up, but I lied. I remember that night you spoke to me while I was still unconscious. I remember what you said. I remember it all, Melinda.”

“Fine.” She said, and he could have sworn he heard her a broken voice say it. “You’re right. I’ve been avoiding you because of that. Because after what I said, I don’t know if I can just go back to the way things were before. And I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is now.”

“I love you too.” He said, and before she could respond he had stood up too, moving towards her. “I have loved you for as long as I can remember. But I was too scared to say it. Too scared you wouldn’t feel the same way. After I woke up, I was scared. I wondered if you had only said it to try and wake me up…”

“I didn’t.” She said, and her eyes are watering but she’s still firm in how she talks. “I meant every word. I love you.”

He smiled, and decided to do what he had wanted to do for so long. He closed the gap.

It felt so right. So utterly right. This kiss…like nothing he had ever experienced before. So, simple, and yet there was so much emotion behind it. When it broke, there was a small smile on his face, and it was mirrored in her own.

“So.” She said quietly. “Where do we go from here?” And for a while, he didn’t know how to answer. But then it comes to him, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“We could always crack open that bottle of Haig.” He suggested with the slightest hint of a grin. She smiled and nodded, offering him her hand. And he took it, and decided it was a hand he never wanted to let go of. As they left the room, heading to grab that damn bottle, he let out a small laugh, smiling when she turned to look at him.

“Can’t believe it took a coma to get us to this.”


End file.
